http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=917
Lilienthal Award
Terry Mason - 2011/12/30 16:29:12 UTC
Hello Bob, and anyone interested; I wish to propose we reinstitute the Lilienthal award, to honor both Otto, and new pilots, when they achieve their first true soaring flight. To begin with, all of the hawks qualified, should have the right to wear thier award proudly, and as new members...
What new members?
...grow into the skill, they may apply for recognition, and join us among the distenguished holders of this symbol of excelence!
Pride is an EXTREMELY dangerous feeling for a pilot to harbor. We'd have a lot fewer fatalities if we mandated people wearing pins commemorating their pooch screws. That would also go a long way to cut down on the arrogance and hypocrisy in this sport.
(Think I'll work on a design for my Partially Hooked In Soaring Flight number.)
I know of a pilot, at Bigsprings, who has a reputation for jewelery designe for producing a pendant appropreat to our style.
1. What shape is the pin in his barrel release?
2. Maybe he could be using his design talents to better purpose.
Please consider this idea seriously, THANKS AGAIN, Terry
We've got way more important ideas we need to be considering seriously, Terry. Let's take care of some of those first.
Bob Kuczewski - 2011/12/30 22:56:43 UTC
I like this idea a lot. Thanks Terry!!
I just knew you would, Bob.
Joe Faust - 2012/01/02 01:56:38 UTC
...first true soaring flight. ...
Definition?
Equivalent to Otto Lilienthal's flights?
Self-awarded? Or how to appraise?
Implement it using Bob Show protocol. Specify time, altitude, and distance requirements and include a clause which states that the pilot may disregard them if, in his judgment, fulfilling them would necessitate an unreasonable risk.
Terry Mason - 2012/01/02 23:04:49 UTC
The Original award Qualifing requirments, is what was ment by, reinstate the award. I'm not sure, seemed like any solid H2 should be capable, not too difficult, yet spectaculer, We should be open to sugjestion. If this meets with gen., approval, we may consider a further award for more advanced skills, such as Master class skill and glider lore, may be awarded the ' Worthington' with associate privledges.
Yeah Terry. Let's have a Worthington Award. Let's name all of our awards for people who killed themselves doing stupid irresponsible shit. Or maybe we should just consolidate everything into the Darwin category.
Yet to be Announced? We have a ways to go before finnal decision,time to think!
Very little, Terry.
later Terry
How 'bout this suggestion instead...
Get some qualifying requirements for people engaging in surface towing operations - both ends of the line. Give them cards they can put in their wallets and show to their friends.
Bob Kuczewski - 2012/01/03 08:20:29 UTC
Terry, I really appreciate your thinking and enthusiasm!!
Yeah Bob. You've ALWAYS been a big fan of...
http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=929
Training Manual Comments / Contribution
Bill Cummings - 2012/01/10 14:04:59 UTC
Tad's procedures for aerotowing should become part of any training manual.
http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=802
AL's Second flight at Packsaddle how it went
Bob Kuczewski - 2011/10/23 16:29:29 UTC
As for Nobody's request for me to read a document, I haven't found the time yet. I'm sorry, but I don't have time to read everything that everyone asks me to read.
...thinking and enthusiasm.
By the way... How's that idea of Sam's to install mirrors on gliders...
http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=822
US Hawks Hook-In Verification Poll
Bob Kuczewski - 2011/11/07 05:42:59 UTC
Sam, you are quite a genius!!
...to spare pilots the hassle of doing hook-in checks coming along?
Sometimes I think the US Hawks is a waste of time...
It would take an unimaginable amount of work to elevate it to a status of a mere waste of time.
...then a bright spot appears out of nowhere!!
Enjoy your bright spot while it lasts. It's gonna be instantly and permanently extinguished in another 164 days.
How many of "us", Bob?
Sincerely,
Bob Kuczewski
If there actually were any sincerity to what you wrote you'd have done something in the way of implementing Terry's suggestion.
Neil Larson - 2012/01/09 23:08:43 UTC
What a super idea , I am in favor of this recognition of HG pilot's advancement from elementary gliding to sustained soaring flight. As more of the on going brainstorm on this subject progresses it will be fun to witness the full achievement of this worthwhile goal.
It's been two days shy of eleven months now. How much actual progress has been made on this worthwhile goal? The fuckin' Bob Show has no end of worthwhile goals but nothing in the way of actually getting any off the ground.
May I suggest , as with challenge "coins" in the military , a variety of different "trophies or awards may be included & supported , even as Joe mentioned the pilot may be able to initiate his or her own design concept for their own Lilienthal Award. In the military , such Challenge coins are handed off by upper ranks to lower as a token of recognition & achievement.
The military also has courts-martial, dishonorable discharges, prisons, and firing squads as tokens of recognition and achievement.
So too , in HG a more advanced Pilot may prefer to present such an award or Lilienthal Coin, after a Soaring Flight has been demonstrated.
Thus a coin of popular design may be re-struck and requested for future presentations , thus opening a wide variety of art & design into this Soaring Trophy system-
Good Ideas keep coming in...
Good Ideas are ALWAYS coming into The Bob Show. None of them ever seem to actually GO anywhere, however. And, given their typical quality, that's virtually never a bad thing.
Bob Kuczewski - 2012/09/11 22:28:17 UTC
I was just wandering down memory lane here in the Otto Site Marker forum when I found Terry's post above.
For those who don't know, we lost Terry earlier this year in a towing fatality.
1. When did you find out? This is the first public mention you've made of it - five days shy of three months after the fact.
2. "WE" didn't lose him, Bob.
Manned Kiting
The Basic Handbook of Tow Launched Hang Gliding
Daniel F. Poynter
1974
"A bad flyer won't hurt a pin man but a bad pin man can kill a flyer." - Bill Bennett
"The greatest dangers are a rope break or a premature release." - Richard Johnson
You and your douchebag buddy did.
3. Wanna say anything about HOW "WE" lost him? Just kidding.
4. Maybe you should wander down memory lane a little more frequently. Your next post here - in another five days - will be your second and, to date, last post mentioning Terry.
5. Compare/Contrast with how frantic you were over my use of "foul language" and how it would damage fuckin' Bob Show Google rankings.
I attended his services in Leakey Texas...
1. So you've got time to travel halfway across the country to attend the services AFTER the towing fatality - but you don't have time to read the document on how to PREVENT the towing fatality?
2. And you didn't think that trip worthy of a post?
...and I was extremely impressed by the number of people who knew Terry and who appreciated his good nature and spirit.
1. His good nature and spirit and all the people who appreciated it were worth shit when he was oscillating behind the truck and his pin man was about to make a good decision in the interest of his safety.
2. Did any of the impressive number of people who knew Terry and appreciated his good nature and spirit feel that Terry's death was precipitated by negligence and/or incompetence? Or were y'all able to get them all to swallow the sometimes-shit-just-happens-in-hang-gliding line?
3. Guess it would've been impolite to discuss any of the circumstances of Terry's death...
http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1081
Platform towing /risk mitigation / accident
Sam Kellner - 2012/07/03 02:25:58 UTC
No, you don't get an accident report.
...with Sam. The possibilities are that the motherfucker:
- didn't say anything about it
- DID say something about it that he told you in confidence in order to keep his slimy ass covered
- DID say something about it that you've chosen to keep quiet about in order to keep his slimy ass covered
All of the above stink.
In re-reading Terry's post, I'm wondering if it might be a good idea to turn Terry's own good idea in his own direction.
If Terry had had any really good ideas for hang gliding you wouldn't be talking about naming an award in his honor and memory.
Maybe we should have a Terry Mason award recognizing enthusiasm and love of the sport.
I think that's an excellent idea, Bob! It might help people think a bit about the advisability of enthusiasm for and love of this sewer of a sport in its current and long time twisted form. It could be awarded posthumously only - to really get the point across.
I'm not sure if that would be a national US Hawks award or maybe a Southwest Texas Hang Gliders club award.
Better make it The Bob Show. The Sam Show lost half its membership when Terry slammed in. The Bob Show only lost about twenty percent so the candidate pool is a helluva lot larger.
But either way, I like the idea of remembering Terry ... even more than the idea of remembering Otto.
1. Yeah, fair's fair. Terry did so much more to advance weight shift controlled aviation than Otto did.
2. You remind me a lot of Jack, Bob.
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=14410
Wallaby fatality
Jack Axaopoulos - 2009/11/16 17:01:31 UTC
Nooooooooooooo!
Big fake show of feeling for people you know from, at most, a few posts on a forum but totally absent from any of the discussions about the incident.
Any thoughts?
Yeah. Stay the fuck out of the way of people who are trying to address the problems of this sport and name your awards after them instead of major and terminal pooch screwers.
- Rob Kells Preflight Safety Award for people who prefer to find out if their sidewires are up to the job BEFORE they launch.
- Doug Hildreth Hook-In Check Award for people who submit video evidence of their ability to distinguish the difference between five seconds and ten minutes.
- Mike Meier Engineering Award for people who remove their backup loops upon receiving new gliders.
- Tom Peghiny It Takes Two Hands To Fly A Glider On Tow Award for people who equip themselves to be able to survive a low level lockout.
- Cro-Magnon Award for people who understand the principle of the second class lever well enough not to fly with bent pin releases.
- Richard Johnson Ability To Stay On Tow Award for people who refuse to hook up using precision International Game Fish Association string to increase the safety of the towing operation.
- Bill Bennett Good Pin Man Award for tow drivers who've never made a good decision in the interest of the pilot's safety.
- Christian Thoreson Safe Landing Award for people who've given up practicing to perfect their flare timing.
Sam Kellner - 2012/09/13 00:59:03 UTC
Hi BobK,
Otto died too.
Yes. Taking chances he didn't need to take, proving nothing he didn't know beforehand, and taking himself out of the equation and thus leaving weight shift controlled aviation dead in the water for another two thirds of century.
In a HG accident.
No. And Terry's death was way less of an accident than Otto's was.
Thoughts?? Oh yeah. Plenty.
Any that don't totally suck? Just kidding.
The next scooter tow trailer plates will be personalized. "Terry- 1".
1. There is no way in hell I'd hook up to a tow rig with trailer plates personalized with "Terry- 1".
2. And, hopefully, the next scooter tow trailer plates after those will be personalized: "Sam- 1".
It won't bring Him back, or Otto.
Neither would a manslaughter conviction - but it would probably make a rerun a whole lot less likely.
Terry moved down to Tx. because of ther moderate winter conditions...
Yeah, one must always factor in the health considerations when thinking about a relocation.
...and because he had heard of the record HG condidtions that exist here.
Too bad you gotta tow to be able to take advantage of them and that nobody in your neck of the woods had any competence in that department.
He was a pioneer.
What did he pioneer? There really aren't all that many ways to get killed on tow and that wasn't a new one by any stretch of the imagination.
http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=795
AL's Flight At Packsaddle 10-04-11
Terry Mason - 2011/12/01 19:55:00 UTC
Those of us who prefer to fly, will always wonder about the key board jocks, who frighten away new flyers with skitzoid horror stories of murder, and at the hands of friends who only wish to share the incomparable thrill of free flight. I'm reminded of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, striving against the ever present obstructionists. Thanks to Sam for limiting Our forum to FLYERS. See you soon Bob
It sure wasn't censorship or the right to kill oneself by tying his glider to a string minus any qualifications with a trigger-happy shithead or the other end. Those practices have been around since the dawn of mainstream hang gliding.
20yr earlier and we'd have set some records
Most people killed platform towing in one weekend at a single operation. Should've nailed that one before your skills improved.
.
Sam
Bob Kuczewski - 2012/09/16 19:39:30 UTC
1. Which Shuttle is that in the upper left corner? Challenger or Columbia?
2. How come in the upper right hand corner there's at least one star in front of the disk of the moon? Maybe it would be a good idea for the Texas State Board of Education to emphasize science a little more and religion a little less.
Yeah, I don't even read all of those long winded "explanations". 
